At the last triannual gathering of the World Water Forum in 2003, a model of  water management that relinquishes all control over water resources to the private sector through commercialization, privatization .  This was proposed as the only possible solution to the waters problems of the world.  On what basis was this model developed ? How was this so-called ‘global consensus’ on privatization arrived at? What are the implications of this?
From the UN World Conference on Water and Sanitation held at Mar Del Pata in 1977 to latest gathering at the World Water Forum in Kyoto in 2003 were landmarks in the long road to constructing the consensus on the privatisation of water. Except for the Mar Del Pata conference - which was primarily concerned with task of providing clean drinking water and sanitation - and rest of the fore fromDublin Conference  in 1992 to the Kyoto Forum were steps in developing the privatisation agenda. The agencies that powered this agenda are not United Nations and Inter-governmental bodies, but three interrelated organizations - The World Water Council, the World Water Forum and the Global Water Partnership - with strong representation of multinational water companies and aid agencies with a pronounced  privatisation bias.
What is significant to note is that the United Nations which has historically played a leading role in facilitating such policy dialogues has been gradually marginalised. and given away to bodies like the World Water Council and the World Water Forum. These organisations have been criticized for being unrepresentative and undemocratic  with direct links to multinational companies involved in water business. For instance, The UN World Water Development Report was presented not at a UN gathering but at the World Water Forum in Kyoto. It was also at the same meeting that a report of the Panel on Financing Water Infrastructure was presented and accepted. The report (couched in altruistic lingo) presented  a series of proposals, the real objective of which was to further the agenda of the global water corporations to reshape institutions structures to ensure that investing in `water markets’ is a profit making venture’.
As one commentator observed, the Kyoto forum succeeded in the incorporation of the UN Development goals on water and sanitation for all into a framework of rules and regulations that will involve the private corporations to operate profitably in the water business.